39 – Keeping the Sunday horrors at bay

You know that feeling of dread that starts to creep over you as lunchtime draws near on Sunday and you realise that you have to go to work tomorrow and you need to squeeze the joy and relaxation out of every second of your remaining time or the day will be wasted. Fucked. No point in having gotten out of bed at all. And you spend most of the time trying to have FUN and RELAX and taking advantage of your FREE time so you end up being grumpy and irritable with the world because it’s not being perfect? Or is that just me?

I find the best thing to do is to fill up my day getting as best prepared for the week ahead as possible. Not school work – I can’t think about that at home without being asked to look at something, wipe something, judge something, put something in his room for being a dick, feed something – you get the picture. But if I can food shop for the week and get all my food prepared then I can take some of the day-to-day stress out of my working week. And I like making new recipes and getting stuff ready.

Also I like to start the day with an early morning walk. Grab the day by the short curlies. Get out there before shit happens so I can be in charge of what shit happens at what time. The grumpy Dutchman made the mistake of suggesting we walk Arty in the morning and consequently me and the lads were raring to go at sparrows fart and poor old daddy was still trying to pull the duvet over his head. But seriously, it’s so nice out there before the world wakes up; the sun rising and the beautiful light that accompanies it, the birds crapping on about shit at the top of their lungs, the smell of damp grass and Arty’s little ‘pauses’. Idyllic.

‘Coco-nutty granola’ Coconut flakes, nuts, cinnamon and coconut oil.

Today was prep day so I made a bunch of stuff. Boiled half a dozen eggs for snacks (they will last for up to 5 days in the fridge), Made Sarah Wilson’s ‘Coco-nutty granola’ for my breakfasts as per the iQS program, I tried out the iQS Peach crumble, and made roast chicken and veges for dinner and my lunch tomorrow. I wanted to try coconut yoghurt too (gluten and dairy free but it does have Stevia in it) IT IS FUCKING AMAZING. I got ‘Coyo’ chocolate flavoured because they didn’t have any natural (no really). And oh my god. Made my month. I am going to try to track down the natural flavour at Harvest – but maybe after I get paid because apparently everything I can eat is really fucking expensive.

I came across this piece of writing today and it was an interesting read. This concept of ‘Orthorexia [that] differs from other forms of disorders in that the obsessive focus is not on how much or how little one consumes, but the perceived virtue of the food itself.‘ resonated with me. She talks about how these (usually young, attractive – gotta be wealthy – women) get so fixated on where their food is coming from and its relative merits that they end up having very little they actually allow themselves to eat and become quite unhealthy as a result. Total first world problems of course. And thankfully she makes a distinction between those with allergies or auto-immune diseases (me) and those who choose to not eat certain foods in pursuit of real or imagined health benefits.

It contrasted nicely with a conversation that me and the lads had where they were asking about me eating gluten-free and what I wanted to eat and of course I listed off all the delicious things I haven’t eaten in two years – lemon meringue pie, neenish tarts, sourdough bread, fruit mince tarts oh drool….. Frankly if I was choosing to eat gluten-free I would be shit at it. I’d be all ‘one little pie won’t hurt’… every fucking day.

But read it and tell me what you think. The fact that it’s got a name seems a bit extreme but the author raises lots of good points; that a lot of the advice given in fact is dangerous and the way these diets are sold are very persuasive.

Anyhoo – I am sorted for tomorrow. Hope y’all are prepped for the week too!